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MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Life and Character 



Alfred Morrison Lay, 

(A REPRESENTATIVE FROM MISSOURI,) 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND IN THE SENATE, 
FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS. SECOND SESSION. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF CONGRESS. 




-* OF WASH** . - 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

i 88 i. 



.-. 






CONCURRENT RESOLUTION. 

ife # resolved by the House of Representatives {the Semite concurring therein), 
That two thousand copies in book form, suitably bound, of the memorial addresses 
on the life and character of Hon. Alfred M. Lay, late a member of the House 
of Representatives, be printed ; five hundred for the use of the Senate and fifteen 
hundred for the use of the House of Representatives. 

Passed the House of Representatives April I, 1880. 

(Attest:) 

GEO. M. ADAMS, Clerk. 

Passed the Senate April 9, 1880. 
(Attest:) 

JNO. C. BURCH, Secretary. 



AD DRESSES 



ON THE 



Death of Alfred Morrison Lay. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



December 8, 1879. 

Mr. Clark, of Missouri. Mr. Speaker: It is my painful duty to 
announce to the Congress of the United States that my colleague, 
Mr. A. M. Lay, died this morning at the National Hotel, in this 
city. 

It is not my purpose at this time to speak, as the love I bore my 
late colleague would prompt me to do. At some future time I will 
invite the House to consider some resolutions in that regard. I now 
move the adoption of the resolutions I send to the Clerk's desk. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That the House has heard with sincere regret the an- 
nouncement of the death of Hon. Alfred M. Lay, late a Repre- 
sentative from the State of Missouri. 

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That a special joint committee of seven Members and three Senators 
be appointed to take order for superintending the funeral and to es- 
cort the remains of the deceased to his late residence in Missouri, 
and all necessary expenses attending the execution of this order shall 
be paid out of the contingent fund of the House. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate the foregoing resolutions 
to the Senate. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the de- 
ceased, this House do now adjourn. 

The resolutions were adopted unanimously. 

The Speaker announced the following as the committee on the 
part of the House under the second resolution above stated: John 
B. Clark, Jr., Missouri; William A.J. Sparks, Illinois; W. D. Hill, 
Ohio; Edward Overton, Jr., Pennsylvania; J. R. Chalmers, Mis- 
sissippi; G. L. Fort, Illinois; and R. G. Frost, Missouri. 

And then, in pursuance of the foregoing resolutions, the House 
adjourned. 



December 9, 1879. 

A message from the Senate, by Mr. Burch, its Secretary, an- 
nounced that the Senate had agreed to the resolution of the House 
of Representatives for the appointment of a special joint committee 
to take order for superintending the funeral of Hon. Alfred M. Lay, 
late a Representative from the State of Missouri, and to escort the 
remains of the deceased to his late residence in said State, and had 
appointed as the coaimittee on the part of the Senate Mr. Vest of 
Missouri, Mr. Walker of Arkansas, and Mr. Kirkwood of Iowa. 

The Speaker. The Chair desires to announce that the funeral 
services of the late member from Missouri, Mr. A. M. Lay, will take 
place this evening at 7.30 o'clock, at the National Hotel, in this city. 
The members of the House are invited to attend. 



January 27, 1880. 

Mr. Philips, by unanimous consent, submitted the following reso- 
lution ; which was read, considered, and agreed to : 

Resolved, That the special order for Monday, February 23, at half 
past one o'clock, shall be the presentation of suitable resolutions on 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



the death of Hon. A. M. Lay, late member of the Forty-sixth Con- 
gress, and the expression by the members of the esteem in which his 
memory is held. 



February 23, 1880. 

The Speaker. The hour of half past one o'clock having arrived, 
the Clerk will read the resolution of the House fixing the order of 
proceeding for that hour to-day: 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That the special order for Monday, February 23, at half 
past one o'clock, shall be the presentation of suitable resolutions on 
the death of Hon. A. M. Lay, late member of the Forty-sixth Con- 
gress, and the expression by the members of the esteem in which his 
memory is held. 



Address of JAr. J^hilips, of yViissoimi. 

Mr. Speaker: Even if no memorial occasion were present with 
its swelling tide of reflections, I would have been reminded on my 
return to this House, after a brief absence, that death had been busy 
here. I miss some well-remembered faces that on a yesterday all 
but were flushed with health and beaming with the pride of intellect. 

They have gone 

The way to dusty death. 

Broad as is that way, how it has been thronged in these latter years 
with Presidents, Senators, and Representatives. 

As I come to-day to offer this tribute of respect upon the new- 
made grave of my lamented predecessor, a troop of recollections, 
sad and pleasing, pass in review before me. The innocence of child- 
hood, the buoyancy of youth, the panting ambition of manhood, 
the charm and rapture of true love that made a heaven of his 



ADDRESS OF MR. PHILIPS ON THE 



domestic life, the conflicts, defeats, and triumphs of the forum and 
the hustings, all pass before my view, and I see how well he lived 
and how untimely he died. 

Alfred Morrison Lay was born May the 20th, A. D. 1836, in 
Lewis County, Missouri, and died in this city on the 8th day of De- 
cember, A. D. 1879. He came of a parentage that belonged to the 
rugged, bold class of pioneers who, with no fortune but a stout 
heart, and without patrimony or heraldry, crossed to the western 
bank of the Mississippi and drove back the savage and subdued the 
wilderness to make way for that splendid civilization which to-day 
points out Missouri among the constellation of States as the fifth in 
the American Union. 

In 1842 he removed with his parents to Benton County, Missouri, 
and there drank the inspiration of his political tenets from the great 
Senator whose name this county bears. He graduated from Bethany 
College, Virginia, in 1856. 

Selecting the law for his profession, he was admitted to the bar in 
1857, and located at Jefferson City, the capital of the State. With 
such assiduity did he apply himself to his profession and such attain- 
ments had he made that in i860 he was appointed United States 
district attorney for the western district of Missouri. 

It was in the performance of the duties of this office that I first 
met him professionally and learned something of his rare qualities as 
a lawyer. This office he resigned in 1861. Yielding to what he and 
others in Missouri then believed to be a duty of obedience to the 
call of the governor of the State, he enlisted in the State Guards; 
and in the gathering storm of war then settling over the border line 
separating the slaveholding from the non-slaveholding States he was 
soon swept into the ranks of the Confederate army. With his char- 
acteristic patience and fidelity he is represented to have served his 
cause as private and officer with admirable courage. 

The war ending, he returned to his home, broken in fortune and 



LTFE AND CHARACTER OF ALFRED MORRISON LAY. 7 

under the ban of political proscription. He had, however, that 
proud legacy left, his personal honor and pride, and through the 
clouds of misfortune there shone the light of the glad smile of her 
who waited his coming, to bid him look now toward the high sum- 
mit of glory in the ascending path of his profession. Accepting 
with philosophic resignation the fate of war, he bent his energies 
anew to the study and practice of the law and soon found his way 
to the front at a bar eminent for its talent. He may not have pos- 
sessed the charm of popular oratory or that vehemence of temper 
that leads into mere declamation, but his logic was clear and forceful, 
and his analysis was often complete. He knew the law and he 
knew men. These made him formidable before the judge on the 
bench and the jury in the box. Possessed of that innate kindness 
of heart and keen sense of the right which impart to human nature 
its fascination and nobility, he seldom gave offense, and drew to him 
troops of friends. His rank as a lawyer and personal popularity 
designated him as one most fit to aid his State in the reconstruction 
of its organic law. Accordingly he was elected a member of the 
constitutional convention of 1875, and the present constitution of 
the State, whatever be its merits, is in part the product of his labor 
and thought. 

But not these, Mr. Speaker, were the goal of his ambition. He 
plumed his feathers and fixed his eye for another perch. His aim 
was to sit as a popular Representative in this hall. This he never 
disguised. It was the temple upon whose turret his eye was fastened 
from childhood. To him it was not the vain delusion that haunts 
the steps of vagrant youth. It was not a dizzy path, to be trodden 
only by the favorites of fortune. Nor was it that ambition called 
" the last infirmity of noble minds," nor the consciousness of any 
extraordinary destiny in store for the child of genius. But it was 
the salient point of attainment of a resolute man self-poised and im- 
pelled by an honorable purpose. 



How he fought and yielded not until he won his object is the 
highest evidence of his indomitable nature, and the best incentive 
his life has left on record to every American youth in whose breast 
there burn the fires of laudable ambition. 

Three successive canvasses he made for this office. Defeat, that 
would have crushed with disappointment or stung to sullen despair 
the pride of ordinary men, only roused the lion in him and set him 
furious for a renewal of the combat. 

It was in the pursuit of the honors of a seat in this Hall that his 
health received its death-shock. The friction and tension of the 
struggle were too great for a delicate, nervous organism like his. 

It was my fortune to be with him at his appointment in October, 
1878, when he was first stricken with paralysis. That morning he 
was unusually buoyant in spirit. In the midst of his address, glow- 
ing with the fervor of his cause, a paralytic stroke, like electricity, 
shot through his frame, benumbing his left side and completely pros- 
trating him. Impressed as he was with the belief that his hour had 
come, his self-possession was marked and his courage was splendid. 
But that which then shone out like quickening fire in his character, 
and sheds a halo of glory around the man and makes his memory 
most fragrant to me, was the abounding love he exhibited for wife 
and children. 

The complications of varied business affairs, the honors and glories 
of the world, had little place then in his mind. The glamour of all 
these faded into nothingness in the one yearning, burning desire that 
lighted his soul like "the lambent purity of the stars," for the pres- 
ence of her who had loved, trusted, and cheered him in poverty as 
in riches, in shadow as in sunshine. Only if he could but fold her 
and the precious fruit of their wedded life to his bosom once more, 
he was ready to descend, as calm and intrepid as the grand marshal 
of Saxony, to his untimely grave. What a bright and beautiful 
page this is in the history of this man! It is as to all that might 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALFRED MORRISON LAY. 9 

be writ or wrought on this national theater as the diamond to the 
ruby. 

From this first attack Mr. Lay rallied but never recovered. Anx- 
ious to justify public expectation and to serve his party in its criti- 
cal conjuncture, he came here and took his seat, only to realize in 
part the dream and desire of his life; for here he died in the shadow 
of the Capitol and in the arms of his wife. 

You, his fellow-members, were not permitted to test the quality of 
his mind, nor to feel the mesmerism of his social nature. Nor was 
the country allowed to know what he might have done for it. 

I know he would have done his duty faithfully and well. Emi- 
nently practical and conservative he had no visionary notions or a 
single atom of fanaticism in his political creed. He would have 
proven equally exempt from that rash spirit of empiricism which 
would tear to pieces the existing frame of society in quest of mere 
abstractions, -and that coward spirit which would temporize with a 
palpable evil in government until it spread like a cancer over the 
body politic, rather than put the knife to its root. 

Conspicuous among his cluster of virtues were his candor and 
frankness. He was a close friend and an open enemy. As odor to 
the flower and azure to the sky, was truth to him. As gentle as a 
woman in repose, he was as stalwart as a grenadier in action. Noth- 
ing he sought for or won had the canker of lust or the breath of 
prison upon it. Faults and imperfections he had, for he was human. 
But he so lived and died as to little need the seal of the sepulcher 
to exclude "from its slumbering tenant the breath of envy" or re- 
proach. He sleeps his last sleep at the seat of government of his 
native State, in sight of his consecrated home. As the dew of heaven, 
morning and evening, keeps redolent the flower, so the fond recollec- 
tion of the multitudes who knew him, and the matin prayer and 
vesper hymn of the widowed heart, will not let his good name fade 
away. 



ADDRESS OF MR. KNOTT ON THE 



Death has its conquest and the grave its gloom, but there is a vic- 
tory over both. 

All human bodies yield to Death's decree. 
The soul survives to all eternity. 

Mr. Speaker, I offer the resolutions which I send to the desk. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That this House has heard with profound regret of the 
death of Hon. Alfred M. Lay, late a member of this House from 
the State of Missouri. 

Resolved, That, as a testimonial of respect to his memory, the 
officers and members of this body will wear the usual badge of 
mourning for the space of thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the 
Clerk of this House to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of 
these proceedings to the Senate, and that, as a further mark of re- 
spect to the memory of the deceased, the House do now adjourn. 



Address of /VLr_ Knott, of Kentucky. 

One of the most pleasing characteristics of humanity is the uni- 
versal disposition among men to honor their dead, to perpetuate the 
memory of their virtues while kindly covering their frailties with the 
beauteous mantle of charity. It is one of the remnants of a celestial 
nature left to a fallen race, and belongs to all classes and conditions 
of mankind. It is voiced alike in the funeral chant of the untutored 
savage and the wailing requiem that swells with its flood of mourn- 
ful melodies the obsequies of the great. It is seen in the rude stone 
that marks the last resting-place of the toil-worn peasant and in the 
marble pomp that hides the moldering dust of departed grandeur. 



In obedience to this generous impulse, as honorable to our nature 
as it is natural to the human heart, we have again paused in the 
midst of our labors here to testify our appreciation of the virtues 
illustrated in the life and character of one whom the "silent reaper" 
has taken from among us, and I ask the melancholy privilege of sec- 
onding the resolutions offered by the distinguished gentleman who 
has been chosen to succeed him upon the new theater of usefulness 
and honor he barely entered when summoned to a sphere beyond 
the dark waters of death. 

There is no one on this floor, indeed, upon whom that mournful 
duty could be more appropriately devolved. My acquaintance with 
Mr. Lay commenced more than twenty years ago, and was rendered by 
the peculiar circumstances surrounding us more than ordinarily inti- 
mate and pleasant. He had but recently been graduated from Beth- 
any College, Virginia, and prepared for the bar by a course of study 
in the office and under the tutelage of Hon. Ephraim B. Ewing, 
then attorney-general for Missouri, and was just entering the arena of 
active manhood, with every promise of the successful professional 
career he subsequently achieved. He was shortly afterward ap- 
pointed to the office of United States district attorney for the west- 
ern district of Missouri, which he filled with marked ability and dis- 
tinction for one so young until 1861, when he resigned. 

Soon after I had the pleasure of forming his acquaintance he led 
to the marriage altar the object and idol of his youthful love, one of 
the most beautiful and accomplished daughters of his native Com- 
monwealth, a lady whose charms of person and brilliancy of intel- 
lect were equaled only by her own amiability of disposition and 
nobility of soul, and who, as a wife, proved herself the choicest bless- 
ing God ever vouchsafed to man. In hope she was ever his bright 
incentive, in the hour of triumph she was his joy, in prosperity his 
pride, in adversity his solace, in pain and anguish his support, in all, 
his constant companion, his guardian angel, his heaven-sent friend. 



" The beauteous vine which had twined itself so tenderly about the 
stalwart young oak, its ornament in the bright sunshine of joy, still 
clung with its loving tendrils to the shattered fragments when the 
stately tree was riven by the tempests of misfortune." When first I 
met them hand in hand, with their young hearts elate with joy and 
hope, they were radiant with the approving smiles of angels looking 
down upon them. When I saw them last, the still loving wife was 
bending in anguish over the cold, pale form of the husband to whom 
she had devoted her love and her life. 

Intimately associated with Mr. Lay as I was, I enjoyed the amplest 
opportunities for becoming acquainted with the more prominent of 
his intellectual qualities as well as with the principles upon which his 
character was formed. His mind was at once acute and comprehen- 
sive, inclining more to solidity and usefulness than to mere brilliancy 
and ornament. His methods of thought were careful and painstak- 
ing, and his conclusions accurate and reliable. Never ostentatious 
or self-suggestive in asserting his opinions, his convictions were un- 
usually strong, and never abandoned unless his judgmentwas clearly 
convinced of their incorrectness. He was consequently a man of 
singular decision of character, acting in everything from a conscien- 
tious sense of duty. His prompt, faithful, self-sacrificing obedience to 
this great motor of his nature was perhaps the most distinguished 
trait in a character remarkable among his acquaintances from his 
earliest manhood. What a deliberate conviction of duty dictated to 
be done he attempted at every hazard or at any sacrifice of personal 
convenience or comfort. 

His heroic fidelity to his sense of duty was most strikingly illustra- 
ted by his course on the breaking out of the late unfortunate war be- 
tween the States. He acted in that fearful emergency from no rash 
impulse, he was influenced by none of the allurements of military 
glory or political aggrandizement, but proceeded to consider calmly, 
coolly, and dispassionately what duty demanded at his hands, and 



his conclusion once attained, he closed his eyes Jo every other earthly 
consideration, to every thought of personal ease, to every aspiration 
of professional ambition, to the embraces of his young and beauteous 
wife, to the angelic smiles of his first-born babe, and all the endear- 
ments that clustered about his own happy hearth-stone, and, with his 
life in his hand, with sorrow, privation, toil, imprisonment, and death 
before him, entered the ranks of the Confederate army as a private 
soldier, where the same courageous devotion to duty raised him to 

the rank of major. 

I know something of the struggle that conclusion cost him, but 
from the moment it was reached I never saw him again until I met 
him at the opening of the extra session of the present Congress, 
where, impelled by the same supreme motive which had controlled 
him through life, he had dragged his shattered and emaciated form 
to the post of duty. What he might have achieved under the influ- 
ence of such a sublime devotion to his convictions in the new arena 
to which he had been chosen had he not been cut down upon the 
threshold can now be only a theme for pleasing speculation. 

As a citizen Mr. Lay was an ornament to the community in which 
he ii ve d— intelligent, public-spirited, generous, honorable, and digni- 
fied. As a soldier he was courageous and faithful. As a lawyer he 
was learned, able, careful, and unswerving in Ins fidelity to his clients. 
As a friend he was candid, sincere, and disinterested. As a husband 
and father he was gentle, tender, and affectionate; and in all the re- 
lations of life he was modest, courteous, and truthful— 

Cui Pudor et Justitije soror, 
Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas 
Quando ullum inveniet parem? 



14 



ADDRESS OF MR. CLARK ON THE 



Address of yVlR. pLARK, of Missouri, 



Mr. Speaker: It is painful when we come to pay the last sad trib- 
ute of respect to any departed associate and friend, but how much 
more poignant and bitter is the sorrow when we join in the memo- 
rial services of one struck down in the very beginning of a career so 
full of honorable promise and usefulness to his country and of just 
renown to himself. In no instance is this more true than in that of 
our lamented friend whose death we here to-day commemorate. I 
knew him from his boyhood when, studious and patient, he prepared 
himself for admission to the bar, buoyed up with the hope that emi- 
nence some day would crown his efforts in the legal profession. 
When he came to practice he was faithful, painstaking, exact in the 
preparation of his cases for trial. And when, at the early age of 
twenty-four, as the reward of systematic and energetic application, 
President Buchanan appointed him United States district attorney 
for the western district of Missouri, it was deemed by his professional 
brethren as deserved. He discharged the duties of this position with 
justness, fidelity, and applause until 1861, when he resigned it. Then 
civil war had begun. In the execution of a duty conscientious and 
deliberate he took' sides and with all the energy and enthusiasm of 
his nature went to work to organize the State Guards of Missouri for 
the purpose of co-operating with the forces of the Confederate States. 

In this reference it is not my purpose to discuss whether Mr. Lay 
was right or wrong in taking the part of the South. As a fact he and 
his companions joined their fortunes with that side, submitting the 
result to the dread arbitrament of the sword, and although defeat 
came with all its humiliation it was nevertheless accepted in good 
faith, and no man was more earnest than he in consigning to forget- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALFRED MORRISON LAY. 15 

fulness and deep oblivion the heart-burnings and gloomy episodes of 
the past. My motive is not to recall the horrors of this bloody and 
unfortunate page of our national history, but I cannot forget that 
amid these stormy scenes I first grew intimate with Mr. Lay, and 
learned to love him for the generous, manly, noble traits which were 
so characteristic of him. We stood together in many hard-fought 
fields of battle. We bivouacked under the same tree, often slept 
under the same blanket, shared the same scanty meal, endured the 
same hardships, were lifted up with the same hope, depressed by like 
disaster; we were indeed companions in arms, and when upon the 
same stricken field we surrendered our swords, we started together 
for our old homes, five hundred miles away, without money, thread- 
bare and sick at heart. He was tried in the furnace of war only to 
prove the fineness and purity of the metal of which he was made ; 
and thus I knew him. His heart was tender as a girl's, and none 
wept more sincerely over the wounded and suffering foe than he did. 
If he were here to speak for himself it would be in honest applause 
of the endurance and courage of the Union soldiers. His aspect 
to the captive was as gentle as it was fierce and defiant to the enemy. 
He was the type of citizen, soldier, man which has added new wealth 
of honor to our national character. 

When Mr. Lay at the close of the war resumed the practice of the 
law at his old home, he was surrounded with clients. He was trusted 
and admired as much by Union soldiers as by his old comrades. 

His duty was a religion to him. .What he believed to be right, 
that he did with all his force. His election to this House was con- 
sidered doubtful. He put forth all his energies, mental and physical. 
Success came, but overwork had prostrated Mr. Lay upon a bed of 
sickness. From this attack he never entirely recovered. He was 
never able to enter upon the active discharge of the duties of his 
position of Representative upon this floor from the State of Missouri. 
If he had been spared he would have been, if not brilliant and pre- 



1 6 ADDRESS OF MR. CLARK ON THE 

eminent, at least faithful, honest, able. His mild demeanor and un- 
questioned sincerity would have won all hearts. 

What he would have been in the full fruition of his developed pow- 
ers we can only conjecture. Opportunity is everything for those who 
are tutored to high purposes and stimulated by an honest ambition 
to achieve success. To the unremitting toil of such men triumph 
comes as a matter of course. Mr. Lay cherished in his youth the 
fond expectation of one day sitting in the National Legislature as 
the Representative of his people ; it strengthened with his increasing 
years, and when the honor so long sought came to him it turned, as 
it were, like Dead Sea apples, to ashes upon his lips. The world's 
greatest men were of the material which made up his character, and 
what might not his courage, lofty aim, unbroken patience, and noble 
resolve have accomplished? His was no vainglorious nature, sway- 
ing to the hopes and fears of demagogy, but he forgot self and gave 
himself up to the accomplishment of what he really believed was the 
highest good of his country. 

He was true in all the relations of life. His sweetness and amia- 
bility were beautifully illustrated in the tender solicitude he always 
manifested for his wife and children. His affection for them sprang 
from a deep and manly heart. The last faint trembling accents ere 
his spirit took its flight were a prayer for their protection. 

Mr. Speaker, thousands of hearts in his district which beat with 
pride at the mention of his name grew sad and desolate when his 
death was announced ; and when on a cold December morning his 
remains were consigned to the grave the crowd of people who stood 
by poured from full hearts the rich tribute of their sorrow for a man 
whom they had so truly loved. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALFRED MORRISON LAY. 17 



Address of yviR. pAvis, of yViissouRi. 

Mr. Speaker: In summing up the record of any public career it 
is of all things most gratifying to be able to say that it was an ear- 
nest and unselfish career ; that its progress was marked by a single 
desire to elevate and bless the generation in which its lot was cast. 
And scarcely less gratifying is it to remember that amid the many 
and strong temptations to attain popularity and preferment which 
surround such a life they had never been purchased at the cost of 
dishonor ; that the glittering allurements of popular favor or public 
distinction were impotent to swerve it from the clear line of right and 
duty. That these were the distinctive and distinguishing character- 
istics of him whose loss we mourn, all hearts will attest. I claim not 
for him a soaring genius, formed to blaze with meteoric splendor 
through the intellectual firmament of his age ; but I am satisfied to 
believe him the author of many a noble deed whose luster shall 
stream through eternity. It is not my desire to rest his claims to 
our consideration on the greatness of his talents, for I remember 
that the best and most enduring work of this world is its heartwork; 
and I risk nothing when I assert that it is to modest talent, well 
directed, rather than to brilliant genius, that mankind is indebted 
for its substantial benefits. It is the great middle class of patient, 
faithful plodders (men who in their sphere, however lowly or ob- 
scure, do their work noiselessly and conscientiously), whose hands 
reap for us the golden harvest of human blessings. It is such as 
these that give character to an age and infuse vitality into the influ- 
ences that mold the epochs of history. 

In this category of noble workmen 1 prefer to class our departed 
friend. To many he was known as a man of generous impulses, 
warm-hearted and steadfast in friendship. To all he was known as 
a man faithful to his trusts, vigilant in the discharge of every duty, 
ambitious only for the triumph of the right, never seeking or desiring 



l8 ADDRESS OF MR. DAVIS. 



a victory that could not be won with honor and retained with dig- 
nity. 

As a member of the vast rank and file of enlightened American 
citizens he knew the needs and sympathized with the heart-beats of 
the masses. Ever keenly alive to their highest interests he saw intui- 
tively and resisted with all the power of his large heart and clear 
brain any attempt to imperil the freedom or impair the rights of his 
countrymen. And the force of his sterling manhood rose up instinct- 
ively but unostentatiously and stood like a wall between their inter- 
ests and every baleful influence that threatened to assail them. And 
in all this broad land which freemen tread, liberty, truth, and justice 
found no more steadfast and uncompromising champion. 

Generous, humane, and gentle by nature, he was intolerant only of 
that which no true man should tolerate. Conscientious, pure in 
heart, of spotless integrity, and firmly grounded in Christian faith, 
his life was a triumphant vindication of human nature when directed 
by intelligence, wisdom, and virtue. 

When some men die — when most men die, we are constrained to 
offset the evil they did by the good we know of them; we hasten, in 
a Christian spirit, to forget that which it is painful or ungenerous to 
remember ; but we have no need to invoke the shadows of oblivion 
to fall on any of the paths his footsteps trod. 

He has gone from among us. We desire to honor his memory. 
Can we better accomplish this desire than by striving to imitate his 
high example, to the end that the world shall not be a loser by his 
departure ? A noble determination to emulate his character is the 
best conceivable method of perpetuating the memory of him we so 
reverently cherish. 

The resolutions submitted by Mr. Clark, of Missouri, were unan- 
imously adopted ; and in obedience to the concluding resolution, the 
House adjourned. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



December 8, 1879. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. George 
M. Adams, its Clerk, announced that the House had passed resolu- 
tions upon the announcement in that body of the death of Hon. 
Alfred M. Lay, late a Representative from the State of Missouri. 

The message also announced that the House had passed a concur- 
rent resolution providing for the appointment of a special joint com- 
mittee of seven members of the House of Representatives and three 
Senators, to take order for superintending the funeral and to escort 
the remains of the deceased to his late residence in Missouri, and 
that the Speaker had appointed as such committee on the part of the 
House Mr. John B. Clark, Jr., of Missouri; Mr. William A. J. 
Sparks, of Illinois; Mr. W. D. Hill, of Ohio; Mr. Edward 
Overton, Jr., of Pennsylvania; Mr. J. R. Chalmers, of Missis- 
sippi; Mr. G. L. Fort, of Illinois; and Mr. t R. G. Frost, of 
Missouri. 

Mr. Vest. Mr. President, I move that the Senate now proceed to 
the consideration of the resolutions received from the House of Rep- 
resentatives announcing the death of Hon. Alfred M. Lay. 

The Vice-President. The resolutions will be laid before the 
Senate. 

The resolutions of the House of Representatives were read by the 
Chief Clerk, as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with sincere regret the an- 
nouncement of the death of Hon. Alfred M. Lay, late a Repre- 
sentative from the State of Missouri. 

19 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



Resolved by the House of Representatives, {the Senate concurring), 
That a special joint committee of seven Members and three Senators 
be appointed to take order for superintending the funeral and to es- 
cort the remains of the deceased to his late residence in Missouri ; 
and the necessary expense attending the execution of this order shall 
be paid out of the contingent fund of the House. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate the foregoing resolutions to 
the Senate. 

Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, 
this House do now adjourn. 

The Vice-President. The question is on concurring in the resolu- 
tion of the House for the appointment of a joint committee. 

The resolution was concurred in ; and the Vice-President ap- 
pointed as the committee on the part of the Senate Mr. Vest, Mr. 
Walker, and Mr. Kirkwood. 

Mr. Vest. Mr. President, I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to ; and the Senate adjourned. 



February 24, 1880. 

A message from the House of Representatives communicated to 
the Senate the intelligence of the death of Hon. A. M. Lay, late a 
member of the House from the State of Missouri, and transmitted 
the resolutions of the House thereon. 

Mr. Cockrell. I ask that the resolutions of the House of Rep- 
resentatives in regard to the death of Hon. Alfred M. Lay be 
taken from the Secretary's desk and presented to the Senate for suit- 
able action. 

The Vice-President laid before the Senate the following resolu- 
tions from the House of Representatives ; which were read : 



In the House of Representatives, February 23, 1880. 

Resolved, That this House has heard with profound regret of the 
death of Hon. Alfred M. Lay, late a member of this House from 
the State of Missouri. 

Resolved, That as a testimonial of respect to his memory the offi- 
cers and members of this body will wear the usual badge of mourn- 
ing for the space of thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the 
Clerk of this House to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of 
these proceedings to the Senate, and that, as a further mark of re- 
spect to the memory of the deceased, the House do now adjourn. 

\ttest * 

GEO. M. ADAMS, Clerk, 

By GREEN ADAMS, Chief Clerk. 

Mr. Cockrell. Mr. President, I offer a resolution which I send 
to the desk. 

The resolution was read, as follows : 

Resolved, That the Senate has received with profound sorrow the 
announcement of the death of Hon. Alfred Morrison Lay, late a 
member of the House of Representatives from the State of Missouri. 



ADDRESS OF MR. COCKRELL ON THE 



^Address of fAn. Pockrell, of yVlissouRi. 

Mr. President: Alfred Morrison Lay was born May 20, 1836, 
in Lewis County, Missouri, and in 1842 removed with his parents 
to Benton County. He received his early education in private 
schools, and then entered Bethany College, Virginia, from which he 
graduated in 1856. He then entered upon the study of law in Jef- 
ferson City, Missouri, and was there admitted to the bar in 1857. 
He was soon afterward appointed by President Buchanan United 
States attorney for the western district of Missouri. 

He resigned this office in 1861, and soon thereafter enlisted as a 
private soldier in the division of General John B. Clark, a part of the 
military organization in Missouri known as the Missouri State Guard, 
and rose to the rank of major. He was subsequently captured by 
the Federal forces and held as a prisoner of war until some time in 
1862, when he was duly exchanged and entered the Confederate 
army, in which he served to the close of the war. 

He then returned to his home in Jefferson City, and formed a part- 
nership in the practice of law with Hon. J. Ed. Belch, the speaker 
of the last house of representatives of Missouri. In 1875 he was 
elected in his senatorial district a member of the constitutional con- 
vention convened in that year. On July 25, 1878, he received the 
nomination for Congress in the seventh district from the Democratic 
Congressional convention convened at Boonville, and immediately 
began an active canvass. 

On October 19, while speaking at Otterville, he was suddenly 
stricken with paralysis, and for weeks remained in a very critical con- 
dition. He was elected by a decided majority a member of the 
Forty-sixth Congress, and, though very feeble, attended the opening 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALFRED MORRISON LAV. 23 

of the first or called session of the Forty-sixth Congress in March, 
1879, but was soon compelled to return home. He was again punc- 
tually at the post of duty at the beginning of the present session in 
December last, with seemingly a fair hope of recovery. 

On Sunday, December 7, in company with his devoted Christian 
wife, he attended church in this city, and about nine o'clock in the 
evening expressed himself to" friends as very hopeful and of feeling 
unusually well. Soon after retiring he was again stricken with the 
fatal disease which terminated his earthly existence about ten o'clock 
on the morning of December 8. His remains were escorted by com- 
mittees of the House and Senate to his home in Jefferson City, and 
there interred in the cemetery, attended by relatives, neighbors, and 
friends, deeply mourning his death and condoling with his bereft 
wife and children. 

An honored Representative of the good people of the seventh Con- 
gressional district of Missouri in the Congress of the United States, 
at his post of duty and honor, has been taken by death from us, his 
colleagues and associates. In expressing our regard for the deceased 
and paying a fitting tribute to his memory, according to our custom, 
I shall not indulge in mere fulsome declamation and unmerited praise. 
I personally knew Major Lay from 1862 to his death, and was often 
thrown in business and social relations with him. We were personal 
friends. I knew him in all the relations of life. As has been said 
of another, so I can truthfully say of him: 

So his life has flow'd 
From its mysterious urn a sacred stream, 
In whose calm depth the beautiful and pure 
Alone are mirror'd; which, though shapes of ill 
May hover round its surface, glides in light, 
And takes no shadow from them. 

Mr. Lay was the true gentleman. He was courteous in his bear- 
ing, gentle and kind in his disposition, conscientious in his convic- 
tions, and firm in his principles. As a friend he was candid, sincere, 



ADDRESS OF MR. COCKRELL ON THE 



generous, and warm-hearted. As an opponent he was just, fair, and 
honorable. He never sought his own promotion by defaming those 
opposed to him, personally or politically. In 1874 he was a candi- 
date for the nomination for Congress and was defeated. In 1876 he 
was again a candidate and defeated. In 1878 he was successful, 
after a heated contest. In all these contests he enjoyed the regard 
and friendship of his competitors, and never lost the confidence of 
his constituents. He relied for success upon his own character and 
merits. In the profession of law he was regarded an able lawyer, 
an effective advocate, and a safe counselor. As a father he was 
gentle and affectionate. As a husband he was tender, devoted, and 
faithful. In the discharge of all duties he was diligent, laborious, 
and conscientious. As a citizen and an officer, a servant of the 
people, he was faithful, honest, incorruptible. In the convention 
which gave the present constitution to Missouri he was a useful and 
an honored member. On account of his physical condition and short 
term of service in Congress, no opportunity was afforded for the de- 
velopment o'f that career of usefulness to his country and honor to 
himself so confidently anticipated by his friends and constituents. 

Prior to his paralysis Mr. Lay had a robust physical constitution 
capable of great endurance and labor. 

When he received the nomination for Congress in 1878 his election 
was assured ; he was in his forty-third year, in the prime and vigor 
of manhood, and enjoyed the respect and confidence of the people 
of his district and State. His life was full of promise. While deliv- 
ering a speech to his constituents — suddenly, without a moment's 
warning, he was stricken down by that fatal disease which terminated 
in his death. Truly 

Death rides on every passing breeze, 
He lurks in every flower. 

We have divine authority for saying, " No man dieth to himself." 

Equally true is it, Mr. President, that "none of us liveth to himself." 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALFRED MORRISON LAV. 25 

The life of our departed friend and colleague was one of the many 
millions cast upon the bosom of Time on earth as the pebble is cast 
upon the bosom of the ocean, which has caused waves of influence 
to rise and spread which will continue until they strike the farthest 
shores of eternity. 

He has left to his widow, children, and countrymen a priceless 
legacy — a spotless character. 



^iDDRESS OF Mr. JCirkwood, of Jowa. 

Mr. President: I was not personally acquainted with the deceased 
Representative from Missouri, but having been a member of the com- 
mittee appointed to escort his remains to his late residence in that 
State, and to attend his funeral there, I have thought it not inappro- 
priate to take some part in the proceedings now being had here in 
honor of his memory. 

The Senator from Missouri who has just spoken has spoken fully 
of Mr. Lay's record as a public man and of his standing as a citizen. 
My purpose is to speak very briefly, and from very limited means of 
knowledge, of what I learned of him from his neighbors and friends 
during my short stay among them while attending his funeral. There 
is, perhaps, no better means of judging of a man's real worth than by 
hearing what may be said of him after his death by those among 
whom he lived and moved in the daily and familiar intercourse of 
every-day life. Judging Mr. Lay in this way, and by this test, he 
was a good and true man. During my short stay in Jefferson City 
his name was necessarily on the lips of all who knew him, and from 
all who spoke of him in my hearing I heard only high praise of his 
character while living and deep regret for his loss. So far as I heard, 
all classes of his fellow-townsmen, the high and the lowly, the rich 
and the poor, the good and those not so good, spoke well of him as 
an honest, truthful, and brave man; as a kindly, genial, and generous 
man; as a good and helpful neighbor, and as a true and trusty friend. 



4 l 



26 ADDRESS OF MR. VEST ON THE 



Address of /Wr. yEST, of Missouri. 

Mr. President: To simply state that I knew Alfred M. Lay 
well would be gross injustice to the intimate friendship which ex- 
isted between us for more than the quarter of a century. I knew 
him so thoroughly and loved him so much, for no shadow ever came 
between us, that in paying this tribute to his memory I shall avoid all 
mere decoration of words, and in the plain phrase of simple truth 
speak of him who 

Loved and lived the truth so well. 

Alfred Morrison Lay was born in Lewis County, Missouri, on 
the 20th day of May, 1836. In 1856 he graduated at Bethany Col- 
lege, Virginia, and commenced the study of law in the office of Gen- 
eral James B. Gardenhire, then attorney-general of Missouri. Upon 
his admission to practice in 1857 he became General Gardenhire's 
partner, and in less than two years was appointed United States at- 
torney for the western district of Missouri. This position he held 
until August, 1 86 1, when a sense of duty, distinct and emphatic, 
caused him to resign and enter the Missouri State Guard, where he 
served with the rank of major. In the winter of 1861-62 he was 
taken prisoner, but was exchanged in the fall of 1862, and remained 
in the Confederate service until the close of the war, being paroled at 
Vicksburgh in 1865. 

Returning to Jefferson City, he resumed the practice of his profes- 
sion, and in 1874 became a candidate for Congress in a contest cer- 
tainly the most remarkable in the political history of Missouri, if not 
in that of the Union. For more than a week the nominating con- 
vention balloted between three candidates, Mr. Lay, Hon. T. T. 
Crittenden, and Hon. John F. Philips, and for six hundred and 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALFRED MORRISON LAY. 



ninety-one ballots Mr. Lay received the largest number of votes. 
Believing it his duty in the interest of his party arid district to ter- 
minate the struggle, fast degenerating into a bitter personal contest, 
Mr. Lay then withdrew, and Colonel Philips was nominated and 
elected. 

In 18/5 Mr. Lay was chosen, without opposition, a member of the 
constitutional convention of Missouri, and assisted in framing the 
State constitution now in force. 

In 1876 he was again a candidate for Congress; but Colonel Crit- 
tenden received the nomination. And in 1878 the long and pro- 
tracted struggle in the district terminated by the nomination of Mr. 
Lay over Colonel Crittenden. 

Mr. President, in all political and even personal history I do not 
know a sadder page than that upon which is written the termination 
of the ensuing canvass and of a life's ambition. As the deceased 
had often told me, it was the dream of his boyhood to represent his 
native State in the National Congress. At last, after years of strug- 
gle, the hour came when his hand reached the prize, and even in that 
moment he was stricken down. 

At one of his last appointments, and while addressing an audience, 
Mr. Lay was attacked by paralysis and fell almost insensible. Con- 
veyed to his home, he partially recovered, but was an inactive spec- 
tator of the remainder of the canvass, which terminated in his elec- 
tion by a large majority. 

Actuated by an earnest sense of duty and against medical advice, 
he attended the commencement of the extra session, but after a few 
days returned to the Hot Springs of Arkansas, to which he had re- 
paired some weeks before. His health improving, he determined to 
attend this session, and we traveled together from Saint Louis. On 
that journey he talked to me often and earnestly of his condition and 
of his full preparation for any change. Although anxious for recov- 
ery, he well knew the insidious foe whose grasp had been relaxed but 



28 ADDRESS OF MR. VEST. 

not released, and he awaited the result, as he had every event of life, 
fearlessly and calmly. On the 7th day of December, 1879, it came. 
After retiring at the National Hotel, in this city, he was again at- 
tacked by paralysis, and died at half past ten o'clock the next day. 

No life is perfect, but each has its aggregate of good or evil; and, 
aside from empty panegyric, this at last must be the question as each 
of us drifts out upon the shoreless ocean : " Was his life for good or 
evil; were its duties performed?" 

Mr. President, standingin this high presence, I, who knew the dead 
intimately in peace and war, in sunshine and shadow, as citizen, sol- 
dier, husband, father, and friend, bear testimony before all the world 
that everywhere and at all times he was modest, firm,. intelligent, 
earnest, and true. 

As a lawyer Mr. Lay was singularly faithful, his skill and judg- 
ment unquestionable. Consistent and conscientious, as a citizen and 
in his private relations he was without reproach Other lives may 
have been more eventful, but never one of which it could be more 
truthfully said, "// was devoted to duty." 

Of my friend I have spoken as I knew him, and it only remains 
for me now, in the name of the State of Missouri, to place this offer- 
ing on his grave. 

I move the adoption of the resolution offered by my colleague. 

The resolution was agreed to unanimously. 

Mr. Vest. As a further mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased, I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to, and the Senate adjourned. 



